Throwback Thursday – Friends

Throwback Thursday – Friends

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Thanks for the interesting topic, Maggie!

Here are a few questions Maggie asks:

Who was the earliest friend you remember? What drew you to this person? What kinds of things did you do together. Did you have pen pals? Have you maintained long-term friendships from childhood. Did you have autograph books? How about high school yearbooks signed by friends? What kinds of things may have made you sever friendships? Are you a friend collector – the more the better – or are you content with the intimacy of a few close friends? How does your personality (shy or outgoing) affect the friendships you develop? What is the quality you desire in a friend?

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My earliest friend I remember is still my dearest friend. In fact today (Dec. 18) is her birthday, and I’ve sent her a cute birthday meme and Birthday wishes.

We knew each other when we were babies (well, I don’t remember really, but our mothers were good friends back then, so we played together). Then we went all through our school days together, had double dates with our boyfriends (later to be husbands) together, and have enjoyed lots of ups and downs, laughs and tears throughout the years.

I had a few friends while at school, and was friendly to most everyone. I actually see them on FB quite often, too. Otherwise, there isn’t any one I hang out with here. Some are friends to say hi to, and one (K) comes by to visit when they are in town. So fun to get together for a little bit, though.

As for pen pals … I’ve had actual letter writing pen pals quite a lot over the years. They were from all over the world. I wrote a letter to a magazine to find pen pals a few times, and the response was tremendous! I still have lots of their letters. It was so much fun. Then the internet and email came along, and the letter writing pretty much stopped, and we didn’t have a computer for many years, so we lost touch.

I do have my old autograph book which friends from school signed, and also my school yearbooks which had lots of fun comments written in there.

I’m not normally out and about socializing anymore. I’m happy staying in. I consider my family my best friends. ❤

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2021 BS

Neighbor Houses – # 9 & 10

Neighbor Houses  – # 9 & 10

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These are my thoughts and memories of the houses in our neighborhood when I was a kid.

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Here are a couple more I remember from the neighborhood houses:

The Carne’s House – Across the street and down one from ours. I didn’t know these people, but their daughter went to the same class in school as my younger sister and they were friends.

The ? House – I didn’t know these people either, but they were a little farther down across the street, though still in our block of houses. This is a scary and awful story that I heard about the lady that lived there. Seems one of her family was mowing their lawn, and the mower slung something out and it hit the lady’s leg. Very serious, and she developed gangrene and died from it. That is why now, I’m so afraid to be around anyone mowing, because it certainly could sling something from under it and hit me or someone else.

It was also behind their house that something strange happened in the middle of the night. I was just little, and I’d get up in the middle of the night to look out the front windows for UFOs. Well this one night there were huge fireballs exploding above their house. I know I saw it, but no one else ever said they knew anything about it.

I wrote about this before, so if you want to read the whole expanded true story it is here

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2021 B

 

Neighbor Houses # 7 & 8 – Moths & Hearses

Neighbor Houses # 7 & 8 – Moths & Hearses

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These are my thoughts and memories of the houses in our neighborhood when I was a kid.

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Jo jo’s house – the dog

Reeder/Brewster house

This next house was two doors down from ours to the west. A very small house, and we didn’t really know these people – at least I didn’t, just their last name – Hamilton. Can’t remember if they had kids or not, but they did have a dog.

The dog’s name was JoJo, and was a mutt, medium size white with brown spots, and a snaggle tooth. He was a kind of terror of the neighborhood and ran loose (they didn’t have a fence I don’t think). We’d always have to holler at him to leave us alone, because we were kind of scared of him.

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This next one was a medium sized house three doors down from ours to the east. Two different families lived there at different times, and there were kids I went to school with.

The Reeder’s I didn’t know much about, but played sometimes with the daughter my age.

The Brewster’s I remember pretty well. Their daughter, my age, and I would play a lot. One time we got ice cream cones from the ice cream truck that came by. It wasn’t often this special truck was in the neighborhood that had cones, so it was a real treat. However, this one time, just as we’d gotten ours there was this horrible invasion of moths. We called them candlebugs. There were like millions of them in a swarm that descended upon us and our ice cream. They got in our face, hair, and even got stuck in our ice cream. We went screaming into the house. These bugs stayed around for a long time, getting into houses, too. I remember my mom taking the vacuum cleaner and sucking up piles of them. But some weren’t dead and they crawled back out the hose.

Another fun memory is that the girl’s father would take us driving around the neighborhood in his … um … unique car. He’d bought a used black hearse! That was so weird and so cool, too. Me and her would be in the back laughing and hollering. haha 🙂

Hope you’re enjoying hearing my neighborhood memories! There are just a few more.

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2021 BS

 

Throwback Thursday – Snacks

Throwback Thursday – Snacks

https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/87279163/posts/3667244424

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Thanks for the topic of our snack times, and the questions, Maggie! 🙂

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The Questions:

Did your family snack? Were your snacks homemade or purchased from a store? Did your family bake or make treats for the holidays? What was your favorite? Are you a sweet or salty snacker? What candy or snacks did you like best? Why? What snacks did you deplore? Are there any candies you loved that are no longer made? Do you snack now? How has your taste for snacks changed over the years?

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I’m pretty sure all our family had lots of snacks to nibble on. Mostly they were home made snacks, like popcorn, or cake. We did get donuts from a bakery sometimes, and another way we got donuts was from a door to door sales person who’d come by. These were so good, and called ‘Spudnuts’. They were a special recipe using potato flour.

My mom always made us birthday cakes, my favorite was called an orange cake, soaked in orange juice after baking. She also made candy for Christmas. These were always chocolate fudge, divinity, and date loaf.

I take turns liking sweet snacks mostly, but lots of times just want something salty. I don’t think there is any snack that I didn’t like.

There for awhile my sister and I would make our own potato chips in our deep fryer. Saturday afternoons we’d get everything ready, the hot oil, the thin sliced potatoes, and get them made in time to watch some afternoon TV. They were so good fresh like that.

We always had sweet iced tea, summer or winter, and occasionally a Coca-Cola. These were a special treat, and came in tiny bottles.

And then there was the ice cream man who came by in his truck with the tinkly music playing. More than once I’d chase him down the road hollering ‘stop!’ haha

Whenever we had a little money, all us kids would go down to the little store at the end of the street to buy penny candy. That was always great. If you had 50 cents you could get 50 pieces of candy! Woo hoo!

I still love to snack, but things have changed in the last few years. I still want all the sweet and salty things, but with diabetes I can’t have sugary things (or very little). Makes me sad, and the sugar free kind of treats are just not the same. And for other reasons I can’t have popcorn or nuts/seeds, so that’s a big bummer, too. Oh well, that’s how it goes.

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2021 BS

 

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Neighbor Houses # 6

Neighbor Houses # 6

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These are my thoughts and memories of the houses in our neighborhood when I was a kid.

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Kennedy’s House

This is the house that was right next door to ours to the west. A small white framed house. It had a large front yard, and a fairly big back yard. In the front yard the older lady (portly, long white hair kept in a braid) would grow some vegetables. The back yard had a pen for raising chickens.

This lady would come over to our house a lot, and would babysit me and my sister from time to time. She had her grandchildren come visit her, and they would come to play in our front yard. We liked digging in the dirt, making roads for our little toy cars, trucks, and horses to go around.

One time I’d been to her house and was carrying a big glass bowl she’d borrowed from my mom, back to our house and I tripped on her porch. It was just a slatted wooden pallet kind of deal. Anyway, the bowl hit my mouth and broke my bottom tooth in half. So I had to go to the dentist where I got a cap put on the tooth. It was silver, and I had that silver tooth for many years, even after I got married and had my own kids. Finally I had the tooth pulled.

Another memory is that she gave us Christmas presents, and this one year was a big set of those Little Golden Books. I loved those books! 🙂

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2021 BS

Neighbor Houses # 2 & 3

Neighbor Houses # 2 & 3

Neighbor House # 2 & 3

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These are my thoughts and memories of the houses in our neighborhood when I was a kid.

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The Ward’s house:

This house was the Ward’s house. It was two doors down from ours. It was a small white house, and I only remember the lady who lived there. She was older, with white hair. One time she had a get together party kind of like Tupperware, but this was for Stanley Products. I think mostly they were selling home cleaning products, and also brushes of all kinds. One of the best hair brushes we ever had came from these.

I also remember that when her grand-daughter came to visit, she and I would get to play. We had fun. Except there were some birds (maybe crows, or a crow?) that almost always attacked us. It would try to grab this girl’s blond hair, and we’d go screaming around the neighborhood.

The Riley’s house:

This house was across the street a couple of houses down from ours. Another white house with black trim. They had a boy and a girl, both a little older than I was. Don’t remember much, but one thing stands out. The girl was selling her made in occupied Japan figurines. There were all kinds in a box, and I bought them from her. I still have a few. I’m not sure if they were just regular pottery type material or porcelain, but by playing with them a lot broke.

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2021 BS

Neighbor House # 1

Neighbor House # 1

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These are my thoughts and memories of the houses in our neighborhood when I was a kid.

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This house was the Seagraves’ house. I don’t have a photo, but picture a small orangy colored stucco facade. It was right next door to our house.

My good friend Linda lived there. she was a year older than me.  She had an older sister and two younger brothers. Hard to remember, but I think there was only one bedroom in that small house. Could have been two, but not sure. Guess they all managed somehow.

Anyway, Linda and the other kids and I were always either at her house our ours, and our moms would get together for coffee a lot, too.

One day the brother, who was my age and I were jumping on the bed at their house, and we bumped heads really hard. It was fun, but then when that happened his head knocked out my two front teeth!

Much, much later in years, he joined the Navy and was lost at sea in Viet Nam. His name is etched into our town’s memorial wall, along with many others.

But, back to the early days, Linda and her sister, me and my sister would sometimes get all dressed up in fancy play dresses and hats, and have tea parties with our dolls in the back yard.

Later on after all the kids had grown and left home, their mom raised chihuahua puppy dogs. She’d bring the tiny little puppies out for us to see them sometimes. So cute.

That’s about all I remember from this house and the people who lived there.

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2021 BS

Funny Thoughts About Houses

Funny Thoughts About Houses

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My house when I was a kid

After doing all those posts about houses I’ve lived in awhile back, I got to thinking about the houses that were on my neighborhood block by our house while growing up.

This housing addition was on the far north east side of our city, so was sort of out of the way of most things you’d find in town. It was called the Clayton Carter Addition. It had one elementary school, two little mom & pop grocery stores, a gas station, a beauty shop, a drugstore, and a small hamburger joint. It also had a really tall water well that served everyone’s water needs.

There were 5 long streets, named after colleges I think. Each street was about one mile long. Ours was called Tulane. It was first called Wabash, which I don’t know what that was, but it later changed to Tulane.

Behind our street was Ursuline (used to be Yale), then there were Stanford, Rice, and Queens.

I can still remember who lived where.

Lots of the houses we called them identifying kind of names. I learned our house was always referred to by neighbors as ‘The Big House’. I guess because it was the largest on the block.

I’ll say the name of each and tell something I remember about each one if I can.

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Upcoming posts about these …

houses on the block where I grew up and their names haha

our house = big house … I’ve already wrote a lot about our house in this post here

Seagraves’ house

Ward’s house

Riley’s house

Owens’ house

Couch’s house

Kennedy house

Jo jo’s house – the dog

Reeder/Brewster house

others?

Grandma’s house

Aunt’s house

Cousin’s house

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2021 BS

Throwback Thursday – Toys & Pastimes

Throwback Thursday – Toys & Pastimes

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This week Maggie gives us the topic of our toys & pastimes. Thanks, Maggie! 🙂

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https://fromcavewalls.wordpress.com/2021/11/04/throwback-thursday-11-toys-and-pastimes/

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The questions:

Did you have a lot of toys? What was your favorite? Were your toys seemingly gender-specific? Did you make toys out of household objects or things you found? Were you required to share your toys with siblings? Was there a toy you longed for but never owned? Did you ever save your own money to buy a special toy? Do you still have any of the toys from your childhood? If you did not have a lot of toys, what were your favorite pastimes that served as playtime? Have you or would you ever, purchase a vintage toy or a replica of a toy you adored? Include pictures if you have them!

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For the prompt challenge we are to think back on the toys or pastimes from long ago. The questions are above, and I’ll answer one by one:

1. Did I have a lot of toys? What was my favorite?

I’d say I had a lot of toys. We always got some for our birthday and for Christmas. Probably my favorites would be the toy of the moment I was playing with. Still, a constant favorite, even today, is my coloring books and crayons.

2.  Were my toys gender specific? Nope, not at all. There were just me and my sister, and we had all kinds of things to play with. We had lots of dolls, Barbie dolls & baby dolls, also paper dolls, stuffed animals, and things like that, and we also had cowboy hats, cap pistols, balls, yoyos, kites, marbles, farm animals & toy soldiers, and little toy cars and building type toys. I loved playing in the dirt making roads with my toy road grader.  Then other times I’d be making mud pies for my dolls and playing dress up with my friends for tea parties.

3. Did I have to share toys with siblings? It was just my sister and we didn’t share many of our toys, as I was 5 years older than she was. She had her own, and I had mine.

4. Did I save my  money to buy my own toys? Sometimes I did. We’d go to the dime store quite often and I’d buy little glass figurines of animals that I collected. I still have some of them.

5. Do I still have some of my toys? Yes, some of the little glass animal figurines, and a couple of dolls, and my favorite stuffed animal, a white floppy lamb I named Softie.

6.  Other pastimes for us would be jump ropes, jacks, pogo sticks, stilts, bicycles, board games, reading lots of books, and writing stories.

7. Would I ever buy now a vintage or replica of a favorite toy? I don’t think so. I still buy coloring books though. 🙂

When I wasn’t playing with any of that, I’d be roaming the neighborhood, finding my friends and hanging out playing outdoor games, or going to the store for penny candy.

Guess you could say I had fun when I was a kid.

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2021 BS

Halloween Countdown # 24 – Forest

Halloween Countdown # 24 – Forest

https://toy.photography/2021/10/24/tourmaline-s-halloween-challenge-forest-2/

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We don’t have any forests around here, but I’ve been to or through three in the past.

My family took a vacation in 1970 to Red River, New Mexico. It is located in the Carson National Forest. We stayed in a cabin by a river, deep in the trees. First time I’d ever seen so many trees. We stayed a week, seeing the sights, riding the ski lift, and carving our names into the trunks of the Aspen trees.

The next forest I’ve been to is the Pineywoods which is a forest, of East Texas, over by Texarkana. My in-laws lived there, and we’d go driving around and walking around among the trees. I got poison ivy on my feet one time. Not fun, but I marveled at all the tall pine trees.

The other forest I’ve been through is the (Washita) Ouachita National Forest, which is in the Texas/Oklahoma area. We drove through this beautiful place, along many steep and switchback roads.

🌲🌲🌲

Here are some photos of me while in NM showing tall trees and mountains in the background

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2021 BS